Users are increasingly performing tasks using remote computing resources, often referred to as part of “the cloud.” This has many advantages, as users do not have to purchase and maintain dedicated hardware and software, and instead can pay for only those resources that are needed at any given time, where those resources typically will be managed by a resource provider. Cloud resources, such as may be provided through one or more Web services, can be particularly beneficial for tasks such as video encoding, which can be very memory and processor intensive. In order to configure a real-time video encoding job, a user generally will have to specify a large set of options that control aspects of the encoding, such as the appropriate audio and video codecs, stream packaging, input sources, and video pipeline processors, among others. For users having many encoding tasks that are similar but not identical, repeatedly configuring the full definitions can be cumbersome at best, and is likely to result in at least some configuration errors for certain video streams.